On April 27th, SonicRim hosted our fifth Whiteboard event at our SOMA office. This time we did things a little differently. Rather than continuing with the open format of previous Whiteboard events, the April attendees participated in a persona building exercise—with the objective of creating personas of the types of clients who seek out and employ design researchers. It was an offbeat assignment for sure, but one that quickly engaged our collective attention.
‘Social’ is a hot word in technology circles; new startups crop up everywhere promising social experiences, the term ‘social fabrics’ crops up in the strategy statements of Google and the like. ‘Collaboration’ shows up in business magazines, web technology conferences, activist manifestos. However, there is still a lot of confusion around what social action looks like.
The March Whiteboard session was all about questions. There were about 18 of us– independent consultants, contractors, industry experts, students– and we began with an icebreaker that called for curiosity. Everyone was asked to write three to five questions on the whiteboard that were (closely or distantly) related to the field of design research. Once all questions were up, we all voted on the ones we wanted to further delve into.
As design researchers, we often examine social categorizations– personas, life stages, generations, etc– to understand how commonalities across target populations can impact the way businesses interact with or cater to their customer base. In this piece, I examine the four main generation groups (Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y) as they apply to the Chinese population with reference to their use of technology.
The study of material culture is a critical but under-explored area of contemporary anthropology with powerful implications for design research. Of course, as cultural researchers, we have techniques to elicit insights about how people interact with the objects that fill their world, but it isn’t always enough to ask participants how they interact with the stuff that surrounds them, or even observe them putting their stuff to use. Sometimes, a researcher has to get dirty.
We have selected two new titles for the May Book Club. Submit a request to review one of them by May 21st! Read more here. learn more »
Due to the Memorial Day Holiday, we will not have a Whiteboard session in May. We are now accepting RSVPs for the next Whiteboard @SonicRim on Friday, June 29th from 2:00-5:00 p.m. Please email chris@sonicrim.com if you are interested in joining us at our San Francisco office for another relaxed afternoon of drinks and creative conversation. To learn more about Whiteboard, read on! learn more »